TBEX 2014 North America Update

We know you’re eagerly waiting for us to announce the TBEX 2014 North America destination. And we’re eager to announce it, too. Unfortunately, there are just a few too many moving parts right now for us to be able to make an announcement yet. And we’re sorry for that.

A little back story.

Last fall, the TBEX team was ready to jump on a plane and head off to our 2014 destination, sign contracts, and have a big announcement. The day before that was to happen, we had a call from them advising that their internet infrastructure was not going to be updated in time to host the event. This great destination was smart enough to know that you don’t send a thousand-plus influential travel bloggers to visit and have an internet problem. It was the right thing to do.

For us, that meant going back to the drawing board. In the event business, that process begins with sending out a RFP (request for proposal) to interested destinations, reviewing them, and negotiating the very best opportunities for our attendees. We know you’ve come to expect high standards from a TBEX destination – from an efficient, well run venue facility to diverse options to explore editorial stories. That means the RFP process takes a while.

While we were at NMX in January, Mary Jo and I did an interview with the This Week in Travel crew (Jen Leo, Gary Arndt, and Chris Christensen) [link] and I said that we had narrowed things down to four cities and that we would be making the destination announcement in mid-February, if not sooner. I meant it at the time. Ever since then we’ve been saying the announcement would be soon, or perhaps next week, or any day now. And the team has meant it every time we’ve said it.

Where we are today.

The reality is that there are still some details that haven’t been worked out and we’re not prepared to make an announcement. We get closer every day, but we’re not quite there yet. We are working hard to balance what’s needed to put on a quality event with the need to get this announcement made and registration open. We have nothing to gain by deliberately delaying the announcement, so I hope you’ll understand that it really is a matter of logistics.

We’re going to stop saying “next week” or “soon” or “any day now” and just say that the very minute we can make this announcement, we will. We hope you’ll understand and try to be patient with us just a little bit longer.

As of this minute we are down to three cities. Each has strengths and weaknesses on a variety of factors, timing, logistics, etc. Depending on the city we select our dates will be the week of June 16 (not overlapping Fathers day). The week of July 21 or the first two weeks of August.

Again, we apologize for not being able to announce our 2014 destination with you yet. There will be a TBEX North America 2014, and you can read about it here the very minute we can make the announcement.

2 responses to “TBEX 2014 North America Update”

Hey things happen, what I appreciate is your honesty and forwardness with what is going on. You can’t ask for anymore. I will soon be embarking on a full time life on the road and am new to blogging. So this will be my first TBEX and I am excited to find out when and where. I have so much to learn and hopefully enough background and wisdom to share. Hope to see you this summer. 🙂 Thanks for the update!

Bloggers from the USA might be looking at airfare to Athens at $1,300+ in October 2014 and have a reliuctance to consider the trip. There is currently a fare war to Scandinavia happening with low-cost Norwegian Airlines in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Fort Lauderdale. In response, United, Delta and their partners have dropped fares to $400 to $625 for various cities in Scandinavia in October 2014.

I have a series of posts on Loyalty Traveler blog on how to use these low airfares to get to Scandinavia and then to Athens or most anywhere in Europe for under $800 roundtrip.